Spiritual experiences generally are subjective and cannot be used to define objective truths.

The subconscious can be used to explore personally meaningful spiritual questions.

Spiritual imagery or prayer can be used during hypnosis.

Hypnospirituality can be described as using the hypnotic state to explore or transform a person's spiritual beliefs, experiences, and sense of connection to something greater than the self.

Traditional therapy with hypnosis generally aims at outcomes such as coping better with mental health issues, improving management of pain or other physical symptoms, or modifying unwanted behaviors. Hypnospirituality helps recognize a spiritual dimension, including:

Exploring a person's sense of connection with God or the sacred

Using spiritual imagery or prayer during hypnosis

Exploring existential questions about meaning and purpose

Helping someone experience forgiveness, compassion, gratitude, or acceptance

Using the subconscious as a means of exploring personally meaningful spiritual questions

Helping patients draw upon spiritual resources that they already consider authentic

Since spiritual experiences generally are subjective in nature, they cannot be used to scientifically define objective truths, such as about the nature of supernatural phenomena. Nonetheless, as I discussed in a previous post, clinicians can validate a patient’s experience without........

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